In optical transmission, routing information is transmitted after being added to an optical signal. Also, in optical transmission that is practiced generally, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is performed so that a plurality of wavelengths is transmitted in a multiplexed state. In optical transmission devices that perform this type of optical transmission, a received WDM optical signal is assigned to one of a plurality of routes (optical switching) so as to be transmitted on the basis of routing information extracted from the received WDM optical signal.
As a conventional technique, an optical packet routing device has been disclosed that includes an O/E converter that converts an optical packet into an electric signal, a header detector that detects information included in a header on the basis of the electric signal obtained by the conversion, an optical label generator that generates a corresponding optical label on the basis of information in the header, an E/O converter that converts an electric signal into an optical signal, and an optical wavelength multiplexed signal generator that combines the optical label and the optical signal so as to obtain an optical wavelength multiplexed signal (for example, Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-136951).
As another conventional technique, an optical packet routing task that uses optical signal data of a signal system as a multi wavelength label and that also uses this as an identifier for optical packet switching has been disclosed (for example, Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-84228).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-136951
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-84228